In a hidden corner of South London, Joe Lauder is hand-shaping his own Zennish little Dogtown.

In a hidden corner of South London, Satta Skates founder Joe Lauder is hand-shaping his own Zennish little Dogtown.

Some people are built to create – to shape their future with their own two hands. The Working Artisans’ Club is a celebration of that fact.

Over the course of this year, HUCK will meet the craftsmen and women who choose to live life the artisanal way. They shape boards, sew suits and build beautiful objects inspired by their passion for the outdoors. And they make life better for us all.

In 1952, with a needle and thread in one hand and eyes firmly on the surf, Jack O’Neill invented the wetsuit, so that he could stay out in the water longer. His simple ambition led to an extraordinary future, both for himself and the surfing world as a whole. The Working Artisan’s Club is the next chapter of that story. It’s about the makers of today, and the future that they’re shaping.

Just take a look at Joe Lauder of Satta Skates – the first of our six guest artisans. His live-and-work studio in Brixton, South London, may be a veritable oasis of calm, but it’s also the hub of his self-built world. It’s here that Joe works daily to combine his love of skateboarding with his admiration of the natural world, whether he’s designing a Zen-like garden through Studio Satta or shaping pintail boards that look straight out of Dogtown.

“It was kind of a bringing-together of my woodworking skills and my love of the roots of skateboarding, to be able to make the first boards that came out from surfing and led to skateboarding,” says Joe. “It’s about being able to see a piece of wood that’s nothing – it’s just a piece of wood – and then at the end of me working on it, it’s a skateboard. Someone can have hours and hours and days and months of fun on it, or like a whole summer or a year. They’ll have a story with it and it becomes theirs. That’s the magical thing for me – being able to make something that’s fun for someone to use.”

The Working Artisan’s Club, a week-long exhibition presented by HUCK x O’Neill, opens at 71a Leonard Street, London, September 2013.